It is obvious that as San Antonio City Council decides today whether to place the question of whether private employers should be required to provide sick leave pay to their full time employees on the November ballot or approve it today, the issue is dead, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
The San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, probably the most influential non-elected body in the city, in an unusually strongly worded letter to its members and to City Council, says if Council takes ether direction, it will 'work to oppose its passage and seek to pre-empt it through the State Legislature.'
"The San Antonio Chamber of Commerce does not oppose sick leave. However, the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce does oppose municipally mandated employee benefits and pay, and strongly reaffirms the rights of private employers to determine the best and most efficient way to operate a successful business, while remaining competitive in attracting and retaining a talented workforce," the Chamber says.
And State Rep. Lyle Larson (R-San Antonio), in an open letter to Mayor Nirenberg today, says getting it overturned is a certainty.
"Should the Council adopt this policy, it will most assuredly face a legal challenge and will likely be overturned. Further, if this policy is passed, we are prepared to file legislation to rescind it and prevent the enactment of similar policies in the future," Larson wrote.
Larson said it is 'clear that state law prohibits the adoption of such an ordinance.'
"Paid sick leave is one of many benefits that may be offered by an employer as part of an overall compensation package, including health insurance, travel stipends, and bonuses. We believe that business owners, not the city council, are best equipped to decide which benefits to offer employees."
The Chamber and other business groups say the decision of what benefits employers offer to attract and retain quality workers should be between the employer and the employee, and ask whether the City Council will next try to mandate that employers provide daycare, free food, dry cleaning services, or take home company vehicles to all workers. Many of those are perks currently being offered by local employers.
Even many businesses which currently offer paid sick leave are worried that the way the ordinance is worded, if they don't offer the 'right kind' of paid sick leave,' they will be found out of compliance and will face fines.
There is also a major concern about the costs of compliance. A new city bureaucracy will have to be assigned to not only respond to complaints, but to regularly inspect the records of small businesses, which then will have to hire lawyers, auditors, and other complaiance professionals to deal with that new mandate.
Supporters, including neighborhood activist groups and labor unions, claim more than 300,000 full time San Antonio workers, mainly in the service trades, are without paid sick leave, which requires them to either go to work sick or miss out on a critical day's pay. They say that is bad for business.